Stories from the life of a strong woman with a sharp tongue and a warm heart.

03/25/2012

What's Good for the Boob...

What's Good for the Boob....

By Kathy Reschini Sweeney

It's been awhile since I blogged. This is because I simply cannot keep up with the bullshit. If someone had told me - even two years ago - that we would be re-fighting about birth control, I would have laughed. Now I grind my teeth and wonder WTF is going on.

Let me just say this to our Guv, and to all those other men who think they can be blase about what does or does not get shoved into a woman's body against her will.

Let's play a game. It's a variation on pin the tail on the donkey, a favorite of children's parties for decades.

It's easy because all you have to do is close your eyes - and everyone knows once you close your eyes, it doesn't matter what's done to you because you can't see anything. Kind of like when my sisters told my little brother he could go outside in his underwear, and as long as he closed his eyes, no one could see him. What followed involved a lot of crying, and it wasn't my brother's tears.

Anyway, here's how we play - you go into the "doctor's" office - which might be a closet, or an alley but what do you care - you cannot see anything any way. Then you drop your pants. No peeking! Then your "doctor" shoves things up your ass and you have to guess what they are before they are removed.

Afterwards, you can get your prescription for hard-on meds, or the results of your prostate exam, or your blood pressure reading, or any diagnosis that might require antibiotics, or painkillers, or any other non-OTC meds. I mean - if you are dumb enough to let yourself get sick, then you should be willing to take one (or more) for the social order if you want to get well. If you had just abstained from things that someone else knows are bad for you, you wouldn't be in this, uh, position in the first place.

Who is voting for these creatures?

I thought the civil rights challenge of my generation was supposed to be LGBT equality. Enough with the homophobia, people. Get over it. Time has illustrated that your house on the culdesac is safe from marauding bands of gay banditos in colorful minivans with the sole intent of ruining your marriage. And for that fabulous visual, we thank you, Lewis Black.

Instead, there is a group of people who seem bent on setting women's rights - and all civil rights - back about a century. And here is the scary part - other people appear to be listening to them! Is it selective blindness or deafness? Is it ignorance? My favorites are the ones who claim to be constitutionalists. Good grief - one of the primary purposes of our independence was to be sure our rights rested with the People - not the federal government. Not even Jefferson or Franklin - who were well-known fans of inserting things at every opportunity - would be able to make sense of this kind of crazy.

Finally, let me just say something about the position of "Right to Life". Because there seems to be some real confusion about what this means these days. If, by right to life, your vigilance ends when a human exits its mother's uterus, then you are missing one helluva chunk of the "life" part.

Abortion is a heartbreaking issue. Nobody gets up one day and says - hey, I think I will go about getting myself an unwanted pregnancy so I can have my reproductive system ripped up, along with my emotional health. Most women who have to have medical assistance to end a pregnancy do so with great sorrow. Did you know that if you have a miscarriage - through no fault of your own - and within the sacred bonds of marriage - even if you only had sex in order to have kids and you didn't even enjoy it - you have to have a procedure to remove the balance of the tissue before it becomes necrotic and causes an infection that could render you sterile. This procedure, under most of these proposed statutes, is considered an abortion.

If your baby dies in utero - and this happens - can you imagine the nightmare of this? If this horror visits your house, you need to have a procedure to remove the fetus- you know - the baby for whom you just finished painting the nursery. The baby you wanted more than anything. This is also considered an abortion, and you can now double-down on the trauma by having to hear about how you are a baby-killer, complete with video.

And if you are raped, and you want to be sure that there are no permanent injuries to your reproductive system, or assure that you did not acquire some kind of disease, you say YES when the doctor asks you if you want to have a similar procedure. This is also considered "murder" and therefore verboten according to these self-righteous asshats.

I would like to have about five minutes alone with anyone who thinks any of this makes any damn sense. But first, they need to spend some time with women who have endured multiple miscarriages, or lost babies in utero, or survived a rape and still get out of bed every day. I know all these women and they would be happy to speak with you.

And then, if you still think any of these laws are appropriate, we are going to play my new game. Would you like this blindfold on first?

Comments

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Oh, Kathy, thanks for expressing some of the rage I also feel. It's insane for these supposedly "small government" and "personal freedom" types to want to end freedoms and to expand government to fit into my vejayjay.

I have three daughters, and many female friends. Some of them--and I--have had abortions, miscarriages, dead fetuses, rapes, and other traumatic events. It's bad enough to go through any of this, but to have to also negotiate government-controlled procedures at the same time? Not fun, and not in any way what any thinking person would consider protecting one's personal freedom.

These last three weeks have been hard on my blood pressure, which is normally low enough to scare medical personnel. My fury at this assault on women and our independence and freedom is unmatched by any other event in recent history except when GW decided to invade Iraq on trumped-up bullshit.

The birth control issue: Hello, not a "religious" one. Women ALREADY pay as much as 30% more for health insurance coverage, solely because of being female and requiring reproductive care in their middle years. There is no economic reason whatsoever to keep contraception out of the prescription drug plans in my insurance policies; why should birth control pills be the ONLY prescription not covered? It is discrimination, and nothing more.

Ladies (and gents who love us), we need to get our asses to the polls in November and VOTE. And between now and then, our feets on the streets. There is a march in April in DC, and between now and then marches in various state capitols. Let's let our considerable voices be heard, and stop having our female parts legislated against.

Kathy, thank you for saying with such clarity and eloquence (and no, I didn't know about Jefferson and Franklin, so thanks as usual for the history lesson) what I am internally screaming about. I will find the time to go march somewhere about this one. Makes. Me. Crazy.

A small point: if the miscarriage occurs early enough in the pregnancy, what I believe is called a chemical miscarriage, there is no D&C required. I don't want any chucklehead to dismiss your arguments because of one small exception.

We have books on display right now near the children's department about government, elections and...gasp...the real meaning of the Constitution. Written in simple language so even our politicians can understand what it is they're sworn to protect and defend. (and yes, the 2nd Amendment is CLEARLY explained...nowhere does it mention Sautrday Night Specials, Uzis or anything other than a DEFENSE militia). I'm tempted...and I really mean this...to send one to each of the Presidential Candidates as well as to my Rep and my Senator! These are kids' books, so it wouldn't bankrupt me, but I'm beginning to believe some of these guys have to have someone read to them, and then only what they want to hear!
On topic--I've been livid since before Komen's major-ass screw-up, and I can't say what I feel anymore eloquently than you do, Kathy. It took long for women to actually gain the "right" to control their own bodies...is there any legislation required for men? Of course not. They write the damned things, and the women who go along with them have a severe case of penis envy.
No man has ever had to suffer the pain of endoscopic pregnancy, multiple miscarriages before medical technology can ensure a live birth...or monthly periods so severe that we cannot stand up straight. So...if they don't know what a woman's body endures, they shouldn't have the right to legislate what it can and can't to. Argggh! Votevotevote! Writewritewrite! And make sure everyone who can vote does. We've ended up with idiots in Washington just because people do not think their votes count.

Amen Kathy! It is truly frightening how this idiocy seems to grow and prosper. We must get out and vote and convince people who think their vote doesn't count that it can and will. If we don't, women won't even be second class citizens.

My own state of MO seems to be heading toward more of this nonsense each year with the ultra-conservative people who are in charge. If they don't agree with a bill, it never makes it out of committee. Anything that is likely to help people is doomed. They are even trying to lower the minimum wage. Campaign finance reform - not in this lifetime.

This is crazy scary, Kathy. Didn't we fight for our rights over 40 years ago? Who'd have thought this would swing around again? It's MY body, my health (physical OR mental). Now I've got to fight to have a PAP smear because I am terrified about the return of cancer? My insurer insists on my taking generic drugs manufactured in INDIA? I checked the packaging on Sam's Club generic Zyrtec. It is manufactured in INDIA. Bam, into the trash it goes. Now I must buy the more expensive Zyrtec(over the counter) but better that than some unknown ingredient.If I go to Target or Walmart or Walgreen's or CVS and ask where their generic benedryl is manufactured they can't give me an answer. They will say it's distributed by us but even their corporate offices give the runaround when asked directly. Do you think that the protocol for manufacturing in INDIA is as stringent as the USA? Hell no. Sorry I got off on a rant. I'm so angry and so are all my women friends. Let's channel this anger into pro-action and get 'er done!

Without any spoilers here......you all must read Lisa Scottoline's new books and read all the drug labels and be informed!!!!
Lisa's in Pgh at out store on April 22 and I for one who has read this new book cannot wait to hear her talk!!!!

...thank you, Kathy, for putting this so clearly for all of the numbnuts. Sigh. It amazes me that women can't get birth control but insurance has no problem covering the 'little blue pill' for the men. Really? Ugh. My best friend had to argue and fight with her insurance due to this....